60 Years of Chemould

In telling the story of Gallery Chemould, Jerry Pinto writes a short history of art in the city

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This was a gallery that began quite by accident. A car owned by the Belgian Van Dammes got stuck, two Gandhy brothers came by and offered to help. A friendship was born and the two families got together and started a framing factory.

The framing factory led to a frame shop on what was then called Princess Street and out of these odd beginnings one of the great institutions of modern Indian art was born: Gallery Chemould. For it did not just mean a place where art could be seen and bought but it threw up an unlikely messiah for the Progressive Artists (MF Husain, SH Raza, FN Souza, SK Bakre, KH Ara, HA Gade) and many who followed. Kekoo Gandhy was tireless in his campaign to get Indian art on the world map and invincible in his belief that it was going to happen soon, if not sooner.

When Gallery Chemould moved out of its nest in the Jehangir Art Gallery, it felt like the institution had eviscerated itself.

At least three generations of the city had walked through its doors and discovered the magic of art.

It was to have been the first gallery to open its doors to the aficionados of art in the city by the sea. But then Kekoo Gandhy was scooped by Kali Pundole, who ran a watch and clock shop at Flora Fountain.

"It was easy to remodel a storefront into a gallery," Rashna Gandhy-Imhasly, the eldest daughter and now a writer, says.